For the last 8 weeks, I have been teaching a wonderful group of LDS women from all over the world about meditation. Every morning I wake up and think about them as I meditate. I have been awed by their wisdom, beauty and grace. Many of them have young children. Some are also single mothers. It’s not always easy to find a few minutes to meditate, but as they increase in their commitment and creativity, I can see them growing in radiance.
A few years ago God told me, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” I realized that he meant first thing in the morning. That’s when I got serious about instituting a regular Sadhana practice. Sadhana means a daily spiritual practice. Sadhana is a self-discipline of the mind (meditation) and body (yoga- even just 3 minutes) to serve the soul. And it best happens in the early morning. I firmly believe that meditation is the missing link for many well-meaning religious people who still struggle after years of faithful adherence to gospel principles. It is the pathway to perfection and wholeness, and what Yogi Bhajan called spiritual fitness. And here is why it is important to do it early in the morning:
There is a dynamic triangle within each of us between practice, experience, and our experience of the experience. There is a constant cycle between these three.
If you have many beliefs and no sadhana, how are you really changing? If you believe very good things about people and serve no one, what good is that? Sadhana becomes a key. In terms of the body and posture there is one law for sadhana: Get up, Set up and Keep up. If you don’t set up for the day, if you don’t posture yourself, ready to engage the day, how are you going to keep up? And how are you going to have a set up if things are already happening before you even get up? So first you have to get up before things are happening. Then you can set yourself in a posture, attitude, and commitment, ready to engage. Then you have the potential to keep up. If you keep up, you will start having a momentum above time. And the effective human is timeless above time. As long as you feel you are just at the whim of time, you are not at the level of extraordinary human that is your normal potential. And it all starts with sadhana and posture. That’s what a spiritual posture is, it gives you spiritual fitness.
If you want to break the chains of time and space, try meditating. Set your alarm one minute earlier each week. Ask for the support you need to have a few minutes alone each day to clean out your subconscious mind and have an experience of your divine truth.
If you’d like to learn more about meditation, you can visit: http://progressiveprophetess.blogspot.com My e-book Kundalini Yoga and Meditaiton Explained for Mormons should be coming out soon! So sign up for my newsletter to get it when it’s out. If you’d like to try Kundalini Yoga, visit my streaming channel for live classes at www.treeoflifekundaliniyoga.com. There are also several simple meditations to start with on our Gift of Giving Life YouTube channel.
Many blessings on this Thanksgiving weekend.
This is so great, but I sometimes wonder if Yogi Bhajan ever had little children! I tried to wake up at 5.30am for a while, but my 2 year old kept waking up with me no matter how early I set my alarm, so I gave that up when I became too exhausted to function (she still wakes in the night, too). I now meditate in the evenings, when I can be sure all children are asleep and will remain so for several hours at least.
But I get what you’re saying, and look forward to the time of my life when I can participate in early morning meditation.